Gotta Catch 'em All!
by MaryandMerlin
Summary: A collection of one-shots and drabbles from the prompts of the Pokémon Trading Card Challenge. Chapter 1: PeterPan!AU - Albus Dumbledore / Chapter 2: Fairytale!AU - Draco/Astoria
1. One Day

**Author's Note: This round and this OWL was really hard, and I don't like what I've written, but I tried. I hope you can see the potential of the idea behind the shitty writing.**

 **QLFC**

 **Round 9 - Write about Peter Pan**

 **Hogwarts OWLs**

 **Defence Against the Dark Arts**

 **Path 1: Write about a character preparing too much for something. This could be anything. It could be something so big that everyone understands, or it could be something small and no one else understands. The character you choose to write about should be in a panic, and something unexpected has to happen (a disaster in your character's mind).**

 **Extra Prompts: (character) Minerva McGonagall, (emotion) Fear**

 **Pokémon Trading Card Challenge**

 **Write about someone who wants to witness a mermaid or siren sighting**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise**

* * *

One Day

The soles of his sturdy, black boots thudded against the damp boards, causing the buckle to jangle noisily as Albus Dumbledore crossed the deck of his ship. He placed pale, gnarled hands on the high wooden side of the ship and let out a harsh sigh, the sound whistling through his teeth. His blue eyes, sharp and expressive, were shadowed by the wide brim of his hat, but his gaze was unwavering as he stared hard at the section of jungle that sheltered his greatest foe.

"Cap'n?"

Albus turned slowly, his brooding stare coming to rest on the tall, skinny form of his first mate and right-hand woman – Minerva McGonagall. She looked sternly at him, her hair scraped back tightly, her lips in a firm line, her eyes direct, but Albus could see the apprehension in them. They were not winning this fight and everyone aboard the ship knew it.

"Yes?"

"We have gathered your chosen few in your quarters for a meeting, will you come?"

Albus glanced back over his shoulder, eyes once more pinned to the jungle, but swiftly turned back nodding loosely. Minerva, satisfied, turned on her heel and swiftly moved across the deck, dodging those lackey members of the Order who were not skilled enough to play a larger role. They swabbed the decks and stood around in small groups, murmuring whispers and rumours. Albus followed her towards the raised deck at the stern, where his quarters were situated. As he crossed the deck, Albus looked to the Phoenix figurehead that decorated the bow, carved in the style of his loyal companion, Fawkes. It was normally a sight that comforted the Captain, but at the moment, it held no such reassurance.

The decorative glass panes that studded the door rattled in their frames as Albus slammed it behind him and surveyed the room. There were nine other people in the room, all gathered around the large desk in the centre, hunched over the map of Neverland. They were discussing in sharp, hushed tones that stopped when he entered, every eye looking up at him.

For a second, no one spoke. They all knew how he was feeling; they all knew the devastation he felt when they had failed again. They didn't know what would happen now, and no one wanted to be the one to ask.

"Well, Captain Dumbledore, what now?" Sirius Black, one of his finest fighters, had never been one for long silences. Despite the evil looks that Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon shot at him, the young man smiled cheerfully at his commander, as if unaware of the dire situation.

"We have been looking at the map, sir," Frank Longbottom interrupted. "Have you considered an attack from the east?"

"Or maybe even from above? Would a boy who can fly really expect us to try the same? There are hundreds of pixies on this island, all we would need to do it capture one—"

Albus slammed his hand onto the table causing everything to rattle and several people to jump back in shock. He was not often prone to such outbursts. "Do you not think," he demanded, "that I have considered every possible approach? I have 50 years of experience on all of you, and I have tried everything, but Riddle is smart, smarter than he pretends to be. This, this stupidity, this desire to never grow up, to never die, allows him to act the child, but there is a boy out there, a boy with the inhibitions of the child but the experience and the manipulative power of a man. There is nothing he won't expect. Nothing." He sighed again, pacing in front of the door as the others gazed back at him. Everyone but Minerva had fear in their eyes, the fear that this whole venture was driving him slowly, but surely, mad.

They didn't understand, not really. They were all so young, too young. They couldn't see the bigger picture. They thought that faith and trust and pixie dust would defeat this foe, but Tom Riddle was so much more than an obstacle. He was a mountain. He struck fear into Albus' heart with a quirky, boyish smile. Evil ran thick through his veins and stained his very heart. They were going to need more than pixie dust to help them.

"Minerva, take the wheel. Plot a course northward around the island." He looked up to his first mate. "We're going to see the mermaids."

X

The lagoon was eerily quiet as the small rowboats floated soundlessly into the rocky cove. The moon sparkled across the still waters but it did not illuminate any of the curious, magical creatures that lived beneath them. Albus looked around but nothing moved. He held up a hand, signalling them to stop, and both rowers halted their movements.

The rocks where the creatures could normally be found at this time of night were barren, and suddenly, this little venture didn't seem as good an idea as it had back on the relative safety of their ship.

"Captain, over there! To your left!"

Albus whipped his head around, and sure enough, a sleek head had appeared above the water. The merpeople were curious creatures. Their skin a hard grey, mottled with blue. They had no nose to speak of, simply two slits and gills fluttered down the sides of their necks. What little hair they had was slicked back. But it was their eyes, so blue, so icy that they glowed like beacons that drew Albus in the most.

As he watched, the merperson disappeared beneath the inky surface of the water, popping up again a few moments later right in front of the captain, startling the others in the boat. Albus took off his hat, his boots and his coat and allowed the mermaid, he could tell now, to coax him into the water with one cold, slimy, webbed hand.

"The one you seek to harm,  
The boy who will not die,  
Will always be too quick,  
No matter how you try."

She said in a voice as sweet as sugar. Down here, her eyes lit the water, and the slicked back hair floated like a halo around her head. She went from strange and hostile to ethereal and majestic. It was a breath-taking sight, if Albus had had breath to steal.

"You will not be the one,  
To strike the fatal blow,  
A child not yet born to us,  
Will end the constant woe.

12 years before return of hope,  
And many deaths besides,  
Tom Riddle might yet be stopped,  
Before Lord Voldemort rises.

You must be there to aid the child,  
Lead him to his death,  
But know that in this venture,  
You will draw your last breath."

X

Hours later, the sun crested over the horizon, painting the sky a beautiful mixture of pinks and yellows. Albus stood in the bow of his ship; he had not moved from this spot since their return several hours earlier. His clothes had almost dried from his encounter with the mermaid, but the words that she had imparted to him would not allow him to rest.

Albus looked out towards the jungle, where the boy terror rested peacefully in his tree, surrounded by those poor souls he had called to his side, stolen from their homes and families forever. This war between them would not end soon and it would not come cheap.

Albus thought of those he held close; Minerva, Potter, Black, Lupin, McKinnon, Evans, the Longbottoms, and even creepy little Pettigrew, he had his uses. Who would be left when this was over? Who would outlive him, and where would this child saviour, this chosen one, this lamb he must lead to the slaughter, where would he come from?

There was so much to consider, so much to plan. He didn't know how long it would be, but he knew that he would not live to see a world untainted by this evil.

Albus looked out at the new dawning of this uncertain world and he felt the familiar stirrings of fear in his stomach. He didn't know if it would be a world worth waiting for, worth fighting for, but he knew that without his sacrifice, there wouldn't be a world to fight for. He had years to prepare, to plan and to build the threads of resistance that would support the child who would save them all.

There was fear, there would always be fear—for himself and for others, for the future of the whole world—but for the first time, there was a little more than just fear. He had a plan, a direction to go in, there was a chance to beat this Riddle once and for all.

For this first time, there was just a little spark of hope there to deaden the fear.

* * *

 **Please leave a review!**

 **Much Love, MaryandMerlin x**


	2. Forgiveness

**Author's Note: So. I'm going pretty shameless fairytale style for this one, and that means fairytale rules. So yes, a girl can run off with a guy she has known for 3 minutes and it can be a happily ever after. Don't hate the player, hate the game.**

 **Hogwarts Owls**

 **Fairytales - Task 3: Write about a person of high social standing who flees from her family to escape marriage to a close relative. Include their life after the escape. Return to family is optional.**

 **WC: (2,087)**

 **Extra Prompts: (character) Astoria Greengrass, (word) sorrow, (month) December**

 **Pokémon Trading Card Challenge**

 **Milotic (Silver) - Write a Veela!AU for a character other than Fleur, Victorie or Dominique**

 **Disclaimer:** **I don't own anything that you recognise.**

* * *

Forgiveness

Astoria smiled, soft and alluring as she descended the grand staircase. The ballroom was decorated lavishly, mirrors hung on every wall reflecting the warm light of the massive chandelier and many sconces around the room. Jewels glittered and flowers stood in every corner, their intoxicating scent mixing with the delicious smells that floated over from the buffet table. A four-piece quartet played elegant music in one corner accompanied by the finest singer in the land.

She could feel every eye in the room and knew that they were all watching her. Nearly every male eye looked at her hungrily, their positions shifting into that of hunters sizing up their prey. Jealousy radiated from the other women, beautiful as they were all dressed in their finery each knew that they could never match her.

Astoria had genetics on her side, her mother was a Veela, the most beautiful Queen to grace the Kingdom in centuries, and she had passed that lucky charm down onto her eldest daughter. Her posture was graceful, her hair a sheet of golden silk, her eyes bright and challenging, sultry and sweet. One pale hand ghosted above the railing of the staircase and the other clutched the fabric of her emerald green dress, the colour of her house.

At the bottom of the stairs her father waited, a mere wizard he was as dazzled by his daughter as he was by his wife, but he smiled proudly at her one hand extended towards her. She smiled, warm and genuine, as she took her father's hand and let him lead her onto the dancefloor. It was customary for a girl to dance with her father first one her 18th birthday. It was supposed to symbolise that she was taking her last steps in his shelter and moving onto the steps she would take as an adult, but really that was just made up to make the young women feel better. The real purpose of this dance was to display Astoria in all her glory to the numerous suitors in attendance tonight. As a Princess of the Blood it was her duty to make an advantageous match and secure the future of her kingdom.

But the joy that Astoria felt as she was spun about the ballroom, the delight she felt in being the centre of attention, was quickly dampened as her father ended the dance in front of the suitor he thought suited her best. The one that would create the best ties and strengthen the Veela blood running through her veins. Her cousin, son of her mother's brother and heir to the throne of the neighbouring kingdom, Alexi.

Alexi was handsome enough, and like Astoria he knew it, but it wasn't his blatant arrogance that put her off, nor was it the fact that he was her cousin, it was not so uncommon for the royal families to inbreed, no it was the fact that Alexi didn't have eyes for her. Or any other woman. Not only was it a blow that her considerable arrogance and vanity couldn't quite stomach, but the thought of being forever trapped in a loveless, passionless marriage to a man she knew would cheat on her was a sentence she could not face, not even for her kingdom.

So she danced with Alexi, but only the first. She did her best to quietly and politely assure him that there would be no match, no matter what her father wanted, but every time she managed to escape long enough to dance with another suitor her father would reappear and talk loudly about how happy he was about the imminent nuptials.

Eventually, Astoria managed to escape the leers of the men, the glares of the women and the insistence of her father, slipping out a side door she took a few steps into the cold December night, looking out over the darkened gardens.

"I'm sure the birthday girl shouldn't look so stressed on her special day."

Astoria whirled round with a gasp at the silky voice, her skirts swirling around her. A tall, broad figure stood silhouetted in the doorway. "Who are you?" she demanded, her voice laced with the authority that came from having servants since one was born.

The man stepped forward into the light and Astoria struggled not to gasp again. His face was pale, his jaw chiselled and his hair as pale as moonlight but it was his eyes, clear, grey and dark with hunger that made Astoria's breath catch in her throat. The stranger swept into a deep, graceful bow. "Draco Malfoy, a concerned citizen. At your service."

"Malfoy as in, Prince?" Astoria asked.

"Duke, actually. The royal line is passed through the female line in my family and currently my Aunt Bellatrix is in line to inherit. Though if she and Uncle Rodolphus don't get, uh, busy quickly, I am next up."

Astoria laughed, "you know, I don't think you're supposed to say it quite so blatantly to people."

Draco flashed her a cheeky smile and moved to lean against the balcony railing. He looked down at her, his smile softening. "Why so sad?"

Astoria felt her own smile slide right off her face and with a sigh she turned back to look out over the darkened plants and trees. "I really shouldn't say, it isn't very lady-like of me."

"Well, I said something I shouldn't have, so if you promise not to tell anyone what I said, I'll promise to do the same for you?"

She looked up at him, her eyes soft and unguarded. She felt drawn to this man in a way that she had never felt before. Normally she was the hunter, she tossed her prey aside because she knew that she was the most adored, the most wanted person in the room, but the look in his eyes spoke of more than just her physical charms. It was like he looked past the Veela, to the human inside, and he even liked what he saw there. "I-" she opened her mouth and stuttered, feeling a blush warm her cheeks for the first time in a long time. He nodded, urging her on. "It's just that my father, he wants me to do my duty to the Kingdom and make an advantageous match…"

"Understandable, you are a Princess."

"Yes, I know that I must do my duty, it's just, well. The suitor my father has in mind, is well…"

"Your cousin?"

Astoria sighed. "It's that obvious?"

"I don't think it could be any less obvious if your father wrote it in fireworks," Draco chuckled.

She groaned, a decidedly unladylike thing to do and dropped her head into her hands. "It's not even the blood ties that bother me! I know that it doesn't matter that we're cousins it's just that Alexi is, well he likes…"

"The royal prince is more like a royal princess?"

She laughed, "that was very tactful! You would make an excellent politician sir. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed though. I just wish that my father would wake up and smell the, well, flowers I suppose. Instead he just wants to trap me in a loveless marriage where my spouse is guaranteed to cheat on me no matter how beautiful I am."

"I think a smile like that one could turn any man straight, and probably a few women not so straight," he commented very seriously.

Astoria blushed hard and laughed nervously. "We're back to inappropriate topics, sir. You must learn your proper court etiquette."

"You make me forget myself, your highness. You make me want to do, and say crazy things, things I know certainly wouldn't go down well with your father."

"Oh?" the sound was so breathless she was surprised it had made a noise at all. Draco had shifted so that Astoria was affectively pinned against the railing. Her hand rested gently on his warm, broad chest and she had to tilt her head up to look into his eyes, her own snagging on his soft, full mouth.

"Yes," he murmured his voice low and silky. "Like I want to tell you I've never met anyone like you before in my life and that you're so much more than the vain, veela princess you pretend to be. I can see your heart, my princess, and a fire burns in you that will not easily be tamed. And, I want to ask you…"

"What?" she blinked wide, dazed eyes. The proximity was really getting to her, her heart was racing in her chest and her breath came in short, sharp bursts.

"Let me be your knight in shining armour, let me rescue you my fiery princess. Come away with me, right now, back to my kingdom. Let me show you my family. Become my family." He closed the distance between them and captured her lips in a searing kiss.

"Yes."

X

It had taken nearly a decade, a wedding and a few funerals, for this day to come about but as Astoria sat upon the dais, a Malfoy Queen, she looked down at the decidedly aged, and humbled form of her father. The last time she had viewed him from such an elevated position had been the night of her birthday, but it was pride rather than sorrow that had shone in his eyes that night.

Now, days after the coronation, he had come to her.

"Father," Astoria said, her voice calm and controlled despite the emotions roiling inside of her. Draco, sat in his own throne beside her, squeezed her hand gently – a sign of support and comfort. They had been married almost as long as Astoria and her father had been estranged and it was certainly a loving and passionate marriage, everything she had never dreamed she'd find in a royal match.

"Astoria, my dear girl. I am sorry." He rose from his knees, his hair greyed but his presence still formidable. "I have been a stubborn, old fool all these years, holding desperately to his pride and instead letting my most precious object slip through my fingers. Can you ever forgive me?"

Her first instinct was no. Absolutely not. The way he had treated her in those months after she fled the castle were understandable, she had betrayed her King and country but the fact that this feud had lasted longer than both her children had been alive was something Astoria was not sure she could forgive.

He had been invited to the wedding, and both christenings, but she wasn't even sure he knew the name of his grandchildren.

Now this lonely man had come seeking her attention and the only reason he had cast aside his pride was because now she held something he wanted, safety from her kingdom. He wanted to come into her world and pop the little family bubble that she had created for herself here. Astoria had been happier in the last ten years with Draco and his people that she ever had been in the eighteen she spent as her father's daughter.

But she looked around, first at her children. Young as they were they still deserved to know where they came from, and then to her husband. Draco was inherently kind, soft-hearted even, and it pained him, perhaps even more than she, that he had been the cause of this feud. He wanted to see her happy, and they both knew the wound shaped like her father ran far deeper than she was willing to admit.

Then she looked at him, and saw that there were fewer laughter lines around his eyes and that he was shaking, ever so slightly. Her father was getting old, she realised, and there might not be another chance like this one to make her family whole again.

So she rose, gracefully, and descended the dais. She took the soft, weathered hands in her own as she had done so many years ago and smiled, warm and genuine, down at her father.

"I think, papa, that maybe I could."

* * *

 **Please leave a review!**

 **Much Love, MaryandMerlin x**


	3. You Scratch My Back

**Author's Note: Got it in on time! Woop!**

 **QLFC:**

 **Round 11 - (Captain) Ron Overreacting**

 **2016 Multi-School Tournament:**

 **Hogwarts Week 1 – Mermaid!AU**

 **Defence Against the Dark Arts:**

 **Task #1: Write about being freed from something or escaping from something. Alternatively, write about someone being repelled by something/someone.**

 **Extra Prompts:**

 **(colour) purple**

 **(dialogue) "You don't really appreciate the fresh air and blue sky until you haven't seen it for a while."**

 **(emotion) despair**

 **Pokemon Trading Card Challenge:**

 **(plot/theme) Viewing/fixing a lake/ocean which has been polluted by oil or man-made waste**

 **September Event:**

 **(word) Confession**

 **(emotion) Interested**

 **Disclaimer:** **I don't own anything that you recognise**

* * *

You Scratch My Back

Hermione sighed as she considered her predicament and a wave of despair washed over her. Once again, she had only been trying to help, to make the world a better place, and now here she was being punished for all her good intentions. Sure, it was probably a bad idea for her to have come out here alone, at twilight soon to be full dark, when no one knew where she was but when she had seen the rubbish floating in the lake, her lake, she just had to clear it up.

"Well, Hermione," she whispered to herself as she watched the oars float further and further away, "this is what you get for thinking you know it all. Now what are you going to do?"

She really had no idea, she didn't know how far it was back to the shore, and the darker it got the less sure she was of even the direction that she should swim in. Hermione shivered, drawing her thin summer jacket tighter onto her shoulders as the night descended bringing with it the cold, and a slight mist that hung over the water.

It was completely uncharacteristic, and went against a good 40% of her beliefs, but in that moment Hermione felt such an overwhelming sense of loneliness and hopelessness, that she burst into tears. They weren't the quiet, pretty tears that one would expect from such a slight, delicate girl, but rather the great, heart-wrenching sobs of someone who knows they are completely alone. That no one is around to hear them sounding like a cow in labour.

"Why are you crying?"

Hermione shrieked, mid sob, and jumped so hard that the boat she was sat in rocked dangerously, water nearly sloshing over the sides. She scrambled around, looking across the water for the source of the voice but could see nothing and no one.

"Down here," the voice insisted and, cautiously, Hermione peered over the side of the boat. Sure enough a pale head floated there, wreathed with thick, ginger hair and beaming a bright smile. "Hi!" he chirped lifting a hand out of the water to wave at her. Hermione almost fainted when she noticed the translucent webbing that interlinked his fingers. "I'm Ron!"

"H-h-how did you get out here?" Hermione whispered, her eyes wide, her heart in her mouth.

"I swam," he said as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. Which, to be perfectly honest, it was. "I was swimming when I heard you crying. You know," Ron took a deep breath in through his nose, "you don't really appreciate the fresh air and blue sky until you haven't seen it for a while. Well, not blue, more black at the moment, but you get my meaning."

"And why wouldn't you have seen it in a while?" Hermione asked, an idea already hovering in the back of her mind but her intensely rational, logical mind refused to accept even the evidence her eyes were providing her.

Ron sighed. "I thought you might have figured that out by now," he waggled his co-joined fingers at her, "but I guess you're one of those people who has to see everything to believe even a little of it."

Ron disappeared back under the dark water, with a gasp Hermione leant as far over the side of the boat as she dared, peering into the murky depths in hope of catching sight of her mysterious companion. She didn't have to wait long. The water beside her began to bubble and heave before finally erupting. As Hermione tumbled backwards, into the relative safety of her boat, Ron dove gracefully through the air and splashed back into the water, accompanied by the strong, beautiful, iridescent purple tail that fused with his body where his legs should have been.

Hermione had no choice, she had to accept the fact that what she was seeing was real. This, this man was a-a mermaid. So she did the only logical thing, she began to hyperventilate. She crawled into the bottom of the boat and hugged her knees to her chest, breathing hard and fast.

Ron put his hands on the side of the boat and heaved himself out of the water slightly so he could look at the girl. It was obvious she was afraid, terrified even, and that made him mad. His previously interested expression morphed into one of disgust. He had come up here to help her, to save her from freezing out here all alone and this was the thanks he got.

"Hey!" Ron shouted, rocking the boat harshly to get her attention. "Listen, human, I know this is a lot to take in but seriously, what do you think I'm going to do? Eat you? What myth, legend or fairy tale have you ever read about cannibalistic Merfolk? I come up here and try to help you and this is the reaction I get; you know one day I'm going to learn to stop helping you stupid creatures before one of you gets me put in a tank. I'm out of here, get back to shore by yourself." He was breathing hard now too, anger flushing his cheeks as he gripped this side of the boat so hard his knuckles turned white. With another angry huff, Ron pushed off the side of the boat and dove back into the water.

"Wait!"

He heard the voice and really considered not going back, but something in her big, doe eyes had struck a chord in his chest and Ron found himself returning slowly to the surface. He crested the skin of the water and looked up at her. "Yes?"

"My name is Hermione," she whispered still looking a little afraid, "but I would really like your help, Ron, if you wouldn't mind helping me that is. It's getting really cold and, and I really don't want to be left out here alone." The last bit was whispered, as if an embarrassing confession.

Ron floated, suspended in the water and watched her carefully. For a moment, Hermione was sure he would disappear back beneath the water anyway and leave her to her fate but after a tense moment he sighed.

"I'll take you back to shore," he conceded, gliding towards her, "but on the one condition."

"Anything," she gasped, her eyes brimming with relieved and grateful tears. "Just, please, get me out of here."

"Promise you'll come back tomorrow?"

Hermione hesitated, but quickly smiled not wanting to anger him again. "Of course."

* * *

 **Please leave a review!**

 **Much Love, MaryandMerlin x**


	4. Family Bonding

**Author's Note: So, for personal reasons I have barely touched my laptop to write for over two weeks now. Something knocked my confidence and I'm struggling to regain it, for that reason this chapter is probably going to feel a little forced, cause it was, but I am trying to get back into the swing of things I really am :)**

 **Prompts:**

 **QLFC:**

 **Round 12 - Write a DRAMATIC story about the WEASLEY family.**

 **Raise a Witch or Wizard:**

 **Section 6: Write about a child's first accidental magic experience**

 **Ultimate Chocolate Frog Card Challenge:**

 **Bathilda Bagshot (Silver) - Include Hogwarts: A History into your fic.**

 **Pokemon Trading Card Challenge:**

 **Oshawatt (Bronze) - (creature) otter**

 **September Team-Work Event:**

 **4\. (word) Exaggerate**

 **45\. (dialogue) "You just suck the fun out of everything." / "I do not!" / "Fun-sucker."**

 **Disclaimer:** **I don't own anything that you recognise!**

* * *

Family Bonding

"Owwwww!"

Rose was in the kitchen when the shout sounded. Her motherly instincts and superior hearing picked up on the distressed sound of her young son. She turned away from the idle chatter of her mother and Aunt Ginny as they gossiped about this and that over the steaming vat of beef stew and dumplings. The picturesque window of the Potter household framed the garden beautifully, all sunshine and flowers. Her father and Uncle Harry dozed in their chairs as their various grandchildren ran about squealing, but there, off to one side, her young son James sat on the ground crying, his older cousin Luke looming over him.

Rose frowned, Luke only had a few months on James, less than a year, but he was growing fast and it certainly didn't look like James had fallen over by accident, Luke didn't look a bit concerned or angry.

She hoisted the gurgling Evie higher on her hip and left the older women giggling over the fumes like a couple of wicked witches. She moved through the large sitting room, depositing the giggling baby into the lap of her bewildered father and continued out into the garden. She vaguely heard Scorpius calling after her in confusion, but she ignored him. He wouldn't be much help anyway, sissy for a Gryffindor.

The breeze was pleasantly cool against the heat of the sun as Rose emerged into the garden. She smiled briefly at her nieces and nephews as she passed them but moved with a singlemindedness towards her son who was still on the floor.

"Rose? What's wrong?"

Rose looked down with raised eyebrows at her father, pausing briefly to watch as he sputtered awake and flinched at the look in her eyes. The open copy of Hogwarts a History that he had been trying to read for the last 30 years slid from his lap and landed on the paving with a muffled thunk. "Did you have a nice sleep, daddy?" she asked pointedly in a sugar sweet tone.

Ron looked around, searching for the source of his wrong doing before meeting his daughter's eyes again. "Yes?" he said, though it came out as more of a question, smiling nervously.

He knew straight away that this had been the wrong answer, though he wasn't sure that he could have offered her a right answer. Rose narrowed her eyes and leant down towards him, hissing through clenched teeth. "My son is crying on the floor, father, and you were supposed to be watching him!"

Ron looked towards where little James was still bawling in the grass, only now noticing him for the first time, but as he looked up to speak to Rose she was already storming in the direction of her son.

"Stop crying James! You're such a baby, why do you have to ruin everything?" Luke demanded, Rose could hear the slight panic in his voice as she moved closer but he hadn't noticed her yet. There was a nasty tone in his voice and Rose knew he had been the one to push James over. It was a shock, really. They usually got on so well together.

"Y-you pu-pushed me!" James bawled, crying in that way that children do when they have worked themselves into such hysterics that they can't breathe for crying. A tatty otter toy lay in the grass to one side and Rose couldn't help wondering if this was the source of all the heartache. His tears were obviously exaggerated for maximum effect but the young boy was still more than a little put out by his cousin's hurtful words.

"Yeah, well," the four-year-old searched for a suitable come back. Rose slowed down, waiting a little to see how this would play out. She realised that she wouldn't always be able to look after James, to wrap him in cotton wool, maybe he'd be able to handle this one on his own. "You just suck the fun out of everything!"

James gasped, the tears stopped flowing, but his face turned an alarming shade of red. "I do not!" he whinged as if this were the biggest insult in the world.

Luke, realising he had struck a nerve, smirked down at the younger boy. "Fun-sucker!" he taunted. Rose sighed, moving forward to intervene but she didn't move in time. These was a flash, a bang and before anyone could do anything or even realise what had happened young Luke was flat on his back, red sparks stinging his big, round cheeks.

For a second the whole house stopped, even those who were safely inside looked up frozen from their conversations and distractions. The children who had been running around looked towards the commotion, their eyes wide.

Then Luke opened his mouth, and began to wail.

Adults appeared from all directions, but Rose rushed towards her boy, leaving Luke to be dealt with by Albus and his wife. She searched James for marks, for any sign of the sparks that had stung little Luke, but she could see non. His pale, soft skin was unblemished.

It was odd, Rose thought, where had they come from so violently and so suddenly, but as she looked carefully at James she realised that he son was shaking ever so slightly. His cheeks were flushed bright pink, his tiny hands curled into fists, and the hair on his head and arms was raised slightly as if static and suddenly it came to her.

The sparks had come from James.

She gasped with the sudden realisation, her boy had become so emotionally over worked that he had displayed his first bout of accidental magic. She couldn't help being a little proud as the other adults fussed over Luke. His magic had been used for defence and attack, he wasn't going to be walked all over. Maybe he would be an auror, just like his daddy.

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 **Much Love, MaryandMerlin x**


	5. Gone Wrong

**Author's Note: Well I'm just going to go ahead and apologise to everyone to begin with. This is so late it's shameful and I really do feel terrible for it. So I'm very sorry. I hope it's not also terrible which would just add insult to injury really wouldn't it.**

 **Monthly One Shot Exchange (October - oops)**

 **WrenWinterSong**

 **Rose/Scorpius, Angst/Hurt-Comfort, (emotion) lost**

 **Raise a Witch or Wizard Challenge**

 **Write about two friends trying to repair a broken friendship**

 **Pokémon Trading Card Challenge**

 **Froakie (Bronze - Water) Write about someone blowing bubbles**

 **DADA (Term 6, Assignment 1)**

 **Write about a character who seems to be pushed around or walked over a lot.**

 **Disclaimer:** **I don't own anything you recognise!**

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Gone Wrong

Saturday mornings were supposed to be peaceful, family affairs with happiness and laughter. Sticky breakfasts with young children and the heralding of a lovely weekend all together. Not this morning. As she stood, with Evie screaming on her hip and James clawing at her legs, Rose considered her resilience. She was certainly tired and certainly stressed, there was food in her hair and snot on her shoulder, but all of this was part of life and Rose had become accustomed to dealing with her children and their tantrums and never resented them for it. They were only children. No, it was her husband, a fully grown adult, sulking at the kitchen table in the corner of the room, that sent her over the edge.

Evie, newly toddling, had toddled right into the wooden doorframe and bumped her head. There was nothing wrong with her, not even a mark, but by the way she was screeching you would think she had lost a limb. Bubbles of spit flew from her open mouth as Rose tried in vain to shush her, bouncing the near 2-year-old on her hip in what was meant to be a soothing manner.

James, now four and a complete nuisance in almost every way, was tugging at her leg as she tried to calm the baby. He was begging her to 'stop the baby' whilst nagging for sweeties all at the top of his voice, trying desperately to be heard over the healthy lungs of his baby sister.

This wasn't an uncommon occurrence by any stretch of the imagination and normally it was easily dealt with but then, he sighed. It wasn't a sigh of sympathy, nor of exhaustion. It did not speak of a long day, or a bad night's sleep. It was the sigh of a man who looks upon the screaming children, and blames the mother for not being able to control them. It was loud, patronising and full of contempt for herself and her children, his children.

She would not be blamed.

Rose, the Weasley fire sparking in her eyes, marched up to the good-for-nothing Malfoy she had deigned to make her husband and plonked the screaming toddler on top of his paper work. She took James firmly by the shoulder and detached him from her legs. "Daddy will make you something to eat, James," she told him, steering him towards his father. "Just ask him."

Scorpius dropped his quill as Evie launched herself at him, wailing intensley, and opened his mouth to protest but Rose had no sympathy. "They're your children too," she hissed at him through clenched teeth. "Maybe if you acted like it for once you wouldn't consider them such a nuisance!"

X

Everything was quiet now. It had been two long hours since the unfortunate incident in the kitchen and Rose was sat, wrapped in a big fluffy dressing gown, brushing out her damp curls as she considered the mess her life had crumbled into.

She didn't know when the poisonous fungi of resentment and contempt had crept into her home and her life but she looked now and saw that it had consumed nearly everything. She and Scorpius had been so deliriously happy at the birth of both their children but something had happened between then and now. She couldn't pinpoint the exact moment, but she realised that she had been more than half the problem, allowing Scorpius to push her around in his grumpy moods and trying to brush everything under rug and pretend it wasn't happening.

She looked at the bedroom behind her in the reflection of the mirror. She hadn't noticed how separate everything was becoming, the room appeared to be divided neatly in two a more than fitting metaphor for the divide growing in her marriage.

Rose sighed and let the brush clatter to the dressing table as a timid knock sounded on the door of their bedroom. She looked up as the door cracked open and Scorpius timidly peeped his head in, brandishing a steaming mug of tea by way of olive branch.

"Where are the children?"

"Your mother came and picked them up after I'd given James and Evie some breakfast. I swear she has some sort of sixth sense, pinned me with a deathly glare as she left," Scorpius answered entering the room and setting the tea down in front of her. Rose smiled softly, her mother was indeed formidable.

A silence fell over the couple as Scorpius retreated to perch on the bed. They watched each other in the reflection of the mirror, but neither knew what to say, where to begin.

"I'm under scrutiny at work!" Scorpius finally blurted out causing Rose to gasp and spin to face him. "I have been for months, they think I don't know but I can see them tailing me and it's all cause of my damned name! I've been trying so hard to keep them at bay at work that I've been coming home and taking it all out on you and the children. I know, I know it's no excuse and when you hissed at me earlier I finally realised that I was treating my children as if they were a burden and you, Merlin Rose. I'm so sorry. I've been an ass and I don't deserve you at all."

He hung his head, shame and despair evident in every line of his body. He looked small, sitting there, like a lost little boy.

"Do you mean to tell me that you've been suffering at work all this time and you didn't think it would be a good idea to tell you wife?" Rose asked quietly, dangerously. Scorpius nodded without looking up. "Scorpius Malfoy, for Merlin's sake what were you thinking? Why on earth did you decide to tackle that alone. Look at what has happened to us, we barely speak, we haven't been together in months, you don't even come near me anymore. I thought, I thought there might be someone else," she whispered, the initial rage dying into something small and fragile.

"No!" Scorpius whipped his head up, eyes wide and horrified. He sprung from the bed and came to kneel in front of Rose clasping her hands in his. "No of course there isn't, how could anyone compare to you Rose?"

"What was I supposed to think? You shut me out Scorp, and I was trying desperately to hold the pieces of this family together by myself. For the children. If you had just told me, we could have figured something out together." She lifted a hand and stroked his cheek gently, "you always told me we were stronger together."

He nodded wordlessly, his eyes brimming with tears. It hadn't occurred to him until today how close he had come to shattering his family in two. He had been stupid and proud and arrogant, trying to take the world on his shoulders when this beautiful, intelligent, strong woman in front of him would probably have sorted the whole problem within a week. He pressed his lips against her hand, kissing them feverishly.

"Let me fix this," he begged as she moved her hand to stroke his hair. "Please, give me a chance to fix this, to fix us. We'll go and pick up the kids and then we'll go out. Spend the whole day together as a proper little family, like we should've been doing all these months. I know it's not enough to fix all the damage I've done, but isn't it a start?"

Rose looked down at him and hesitated, all the walls she had been building were threatening to crumble, but wouldn't that be better? Wouldn't her family benefit from a united front? She opened her mouth, but when words wouldn't come settled for simply nodding.

Scorpius smiled, then grinned, wide and genuine. He scooped her up into his arms and pressed a gentle, aching kiss to her lips. "Thank you."

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 **Much Love, MaryandMerlin x**


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